Gehko join us tonight in the studio, we review some tracks from their album. Tom Clements produced the album, he’s joined us all too and since he’s the only one with a guitar, plays Promises out live for us. We have some interesting chat, and I also remember to include a phone in with Karen from Fiveways Folk, a new folk night starting in town.

Afterwards, on to O’Neills where Isobel Thatcher is starting the evening, performing to a rowdy bunch who only want to hear Wonderwall. That’s become a bit of an in-joke thing, since Tom was asked to play Wonderwall five times at the Inferno Human Jukebox evening. I digress; Isobel has a strong voice, and carries on regardless of the rowdies, who move on to another pub as part of their crawl, leaving behind a more appreciative, and still full, pub crowd

Taff (Thomas ‘Taff’ Morse) is also on stage, taking an unusual break from running things in Poole to play here. He has Jack with him on cajon, they start with a cover of Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game, its a little different from The Milk Machine stuff I’ve previously heard him do. Next we have Jungle Book’s I Wanna Be Like You, then into When Doves Cry melded with Never Tear Us Apart. Each is placed into its own space, Taff plays each fairly regular, and yet this shows that he can both play decently, and belt out some corkers, even if they are all crowd pleasing covers. He breaks into an Axis of Awesome-style medley, loads of songs in the same key, slightly different rhythms, whilst in the middle of With Or Without You.

Jemma and Annie enter while Taff plays. Its Jemma’s birthday today, and they are doing a set as Snow Wolf. They’ve brought their own crowd with them too, filling the bar out again. They are on good form tonight – despite birthdays they’ve been staying away from the booze, as last time was a bit giggly so I’m told. Jemma’s strident voice commands the attention of the pub, and Annie takes some easy chord playing, before they swap roles. Annie’s voice is also commanding, and they harmonise well together. Thay also provide a comic interlude – for some reason, Jemma needs to lose a boot, and Annie decides to remove it for her during her own song. Annie tries to remove the other one, and instead removes the heel. Its all a bit random and bizarre, they’re giggling, including us with them makes for entertainment.

The Winchester is host to this years BMTH Unplugged competition. I gave 4 months of my Wednesday nights to this last year, so it feels weird walking in halfway through the heats, only catching what turns out to be 2 full artists tonight

Toby Fitton is winding up as I wander in; Chris Woodford offers his masterclass on how to musically beat the crap out of a guitar – not content with keeping this to Geoff (Mr Lively)’s Yamaha, Chris has a new toy to play with in a well-suited Taylor – 3 pickups, solid body, floating sound hole, ebony and bone neck work. This time he’s wandering about the stage a little to provide some interest, and also announces songs – previously unheard of from this past-master of just letting the music speak.

John Llewellyn follows up to close the night with some pure songs, nicely sung, with slight interest from the chord work. Shame that for me the lyric refrains are rather depressing – “why get hired when you’re gonna get fired” – though I appreciate the ludicrously high note he reaches for that last line to end the song on.

On to The Cellar Bar, where The Neon Mile are running through some of their staple numbers, slightly progressive, insistent beats and oh, those gorgeous melodies and the beautifully dissonant chordwork to accompany them. Miscreants, near the end of the set, is just an amazing anthem, just needs 3000 people swaying with a lighter in the air to make this any better. Weight In Gold has been given some new treatment, making it more upbeat than the recorded versions.

Jemma and Annie from Snow Wolf are here having played earlier, I should have saved myself the hassle of getting over to the other side of town (and the ensuing door fee) to hear these girls play instead, since I’ve not heard them for a while, and I hear they’ve really tightened up their act.

After some time with the dive club, off to the Cellar Bar for another Solid Air installment. I’ve missed Juno Jakob, and Rachel Henson takes to the stage as I arrive. She starts with a soft ballad, and despite this being her first ever gig, comes across OK over the mic with stage presence, not faltering, just a bit of wordplay with the song titles (“This song is No Good…”), which shows burgeoning confidence. The next songs are slightly faltering with the guitar chord work, but is otherwise are fun little up tempo numbers. She professes to not know many chords, the capo use soon sorts that out! She has a rich timbre to her voice, and has some good melodies in her songs.

Fawnamarine is next on stage after a very slick handover. She’s playing some good tunes on an acoustic bass of all things, and again gives her voice a chance to shine. She’s playing the bass quite fast, finger tapping lightly with the right hand, such that she almost seems to be playing chords, a very unusual and unexpected sound, especially when she does switch to strumming said chords.

She sings Movin’ On, which is the track I’ve played out on air a few times (well, the remixed version). Its good to hear an unadulterated acoustic version in this live context. For the last couple of numbers she invites friend Ottie to join her on guitar, and the already good rhythms improve with him carrying the melody.

Snow Wolf (Jemma & Annie) are our closer tonight, they are excitedly giggly before starting their set proper, this atmosphere continues through the lovely songs. Its also a clean set – I might well have to stop mentioning that, if they continue in this vein. It’s just as I write this that Jemma then tells the bar she’s on good behaviour because of me! Perhaps I will mention it after all ;). As per the radio show last week, they’re augmenting the single shared guitar with some simple percussion instruments, prompting Fawnamarine to offer her services to turn them into a trio, with drums. I leave after four songs or so, been a busy day…

Miss Interpreted has already been on by the time I walk in, and Veetacore are just starting, in very unplugged mode – Dan (percussion) has left it behind so its over to James (bass), Becky (vocals) and Tom (guitar). They’re very laid back, starting with the song I played on last week’s radio show, The Battle Of Dogger Bank. I’m unfamiliar with the rest of the material, there are slow ones and pacier ones all of which work for the most part.

Becky has a very clean voice, albeit she admits to struggling tonight after a couple of heavy singing sessions over the weekend. The acoustic nature also seems to be unusual for them, they say they’ve made changes to the songs; there are a few hesitant notes before they settle into some tunes. Tom also harmonises on occasion, providing a decent counterpoint. Glad to have finally seen them.

Jemma and Annie are in Snow Wolf guise tonight. Jemma starts with a solo number, on guitar and voice before passing the guitar to Annie while she leads the duet they follow with. They continue to swap about lead vocal and guitar, I’m impressed and pleased that the between song banter is kept clean this time (for the most part – there’s a couple of slips). There’s a bit of uncertainty over their endings where they choose to hum, and don’t quite seem to know when to stop 🙂 That’s the only detraction for me from a pretty fun and beautifully sung set.